These 10 simple habits will help you stay organized, be more productive, and are easy to implement into your daily routine.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my lifestyle lately. We are increasingly realizing that habits are very important as they are our natural defaults. They are what we rely on as we go through our daily movements. .
Forming good habits and sticking to them over time can produce amazing long-term results. Repeated bad habits do the opposite.
Today I want to share 10 small habits that can help you be more productive and organized in your life. These are all simple things that can help make your days (and ultimately weeks, months and years!) run smoother.
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Stay organized and on your way with these 10 simple habits
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1. Make a bed.
I was never a bedmaker. Either way, we were going to try again the next night, so why bother? But recently, I started making my bed every morning. And I can’t believe the difference it made!
Not only will it make your bedroom look better, but it will also give you a positive feeling to start your day. I start with a space that looks orderly and peaceful. And it really helps set a great tone for the rest of the day.
2. Tidy up the kitchen and straighten the house quickly.
If making your bed is what you want to do when you wake up in the morning, cleaning the kitchen and tidying up the house is what you want to do before you go to bed at night. .
Our whole family unites to make this happen. After dinner, Donnie clears the dishes and cleans up the kitchen while the boys and I quickly pick up the rest of the house. (Admittedly, this is much easier now as a teen/tween than when I was a toddler.)
(Now, if only I could find a way to casually place beautiful fresh flowers in my sink and always look beautiful… 😉)
Much like making your bed, having a tidy home before your head hits the pillow gives you the right mindset to organize the rest of your life. And I love waking up, going downstairs, and being greeted by a clean, pick-me-up living area.
3. Complete one task before proceeding to the next task.
Well all my creatives out there are related to this. You’re working on a project, putting the finishing touches on it, and suddenly you feel the need to move on to the next task urgently, and all the project materials you’ll be working on later are scattered about.
Or you make lunch for the kids and as soon as you hand them a plate, you realize you forgot to respond to that email. Pin a few things on Pinterest and forget all the mess you left in the kitchen to make lunch.
is there anyone with me I do all this THE. time.
I’m jumping from object to object, so at the end of the day my house looked like it had been hit by a tornado, and I wonder how it got there. I’m currently trying to retrain myself to finish a task, including cleanup, before moving on to the next one.
If you do this well, you’ll be able to sit back on the couch in the evening and be surrounded by a neat, clean and welcoming space, not a chaos. occur.
4. Take advantage of the waiting time.
Before I had a smartphone, I was good at this. If you’re heating something in the microwave, take those few minutes out of the dishwasher or wipe down the counter.
With the entire world wide web at your fingertips, you’ll want to check your email and browse Instagram Instead of doing a job that helps keep the house tidy.
Whether you’re waiting for your kids to put on their shoes or for something to be done in the oven, you’ll be amazed at what you can do when you commit to using the wait wisely.
It’s amazing what you can do in just 15 minutes a day. This may be during downtime or hours set aside specifically for a particular task. Over seven days, this tiny amount of time equates to almost two hours, and you won’t even miss it. It does a lot more because it seems overwhelmingly less and more manageable.
5. Follow the “one in one out” rule.
In our homes, when we bring in something new, we have to let go of something else. I’ve noticed that even the smallest amount of clutter can make the house feel cluttered!
Toys are one of the worst offenders that cause clutter. If I don’t stay on top of them, I feel like they’re taking over the whole house. .
At the very least, committing to decluttering when adding something new helps give you a good reminder in case you tend to spend a lot of time between big decluttering sessions. .
6. Maintain a coordinated calendar.
Donnie is 100% responsible for instilling this habit in me. Our Google calendars are synced so we can see what each other calendar has scheduled.
His appointments are blue and mine are pink, making it easy to see what other appointments are going on if you’re making plans or trying to coordinate with others.
I’m a pen-and-paper girl by nature, so this was a challenge for me (and I still sometimes forget to add something to my calendar). But I definitely think the digital version is the way forward for this.
I carry my phone with me most of the time, so I can easily add new appointments and events. A shared digital calendar is also the easiest way for Donnie and I to stay up to date on what’s going on without having to refer to multiple paper calendars.
7. Go for inbox zero.
Gah. email. Email is a rough one for me and definitely something I’m still working on. It’s much better than it was before. But my ultimate goal is to zero out my inbox every night before I go to bed.
To do this, you need to set a schedule to reply to your emails on time every day. There is never extra time in your schedule to sit down and work on email. But it’s one of those things that if I do it well, it’s quick, painless, and not difficult at all.
8. Have a system in place for paperwork.
While the actual system is different for each person and family, I think it’s very important to have some kind of plan for all the paper that comes into your home, from mail to schoolwork to coupons to newspapers and anything else you find at your door. and.
In our home, we handle this a few different ways. I am in charge of information and paperwork for the boys’ school each night, throwing away or recycling unwanted items, displaying some of my favorite items, and photographing my favorite pieces for the annual photo book. increase.
And Donnie uses the paperless system detailed in this post to handle all emails, invoices, forms, and pretty much everything else.
This paperless system is very revolutionary for us as far as home organization is concerned. If you haven’t seen how Donny does it yet, I highly recommend stopping by and checking him out, he’s amazing!
9. Create a to-do list.
You could probably guess that this is here. Maybe I’m just a little obsessed with lists. I love making them and I love checking things out.
Using a digital task manager for all my to-do lists and long-term plans has changed everything.
Or, if you prefer paper and pen, get a printable daily plan with time blocks here.
10. Get some sleep.
“But Abbie, what does sleep have to do with productivity and organization?!” Friend, it has all to do it. My natural tendency is to stay up as late as possible to get things done, which leaves me lethargic and unproductive the next day.
Ever since I realized how much a good night’s sleep impacts my day, I’ve tried to be conscious about going to bed early and getting enough sleep. And I can confidently say that there’s a big difference in the amount you can achieve when you’re running empty.
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So those are my 10’s! I could probably add 100 more to this list, so if you have any helpful tips for staying organized and productive, please share them in the comments.
A nice day!
This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure here for more details.
